Stung by the superhero duo, Green Hornet and Kato

On this date in 1936 The Green Hornet first aired on American radio. The series was about the adventures of Britt Reid, a newspaper publisher by day and a masked crime-fighting hero at night. He was declared as an outlaw himself due to his vigilante nature, but that allowed him to mix with the criminals without being suspect while confidentially working with the law enforcement community. He was accompanied by his chauffeur, Kato. The Green Hornet series was brought to television by ABC in 1966-67, starring Van Williams as the Green Hornet and introducing Bruce Lee to the American audiences as Kato. It was cancelled after only one season. Like the Batman series, the Green Hornet series also had a tripped-out car, Black Beauty. It had 'infra-green' headlights. It could fire rockets with explosive warheads, which were actually explosive charges from tubes at its bumpers. It could launch a small flying video/audio surveillance device through the trunk lid. It was also rigged for 'silent running' in the series. It had a built-in video camera to see ahead for four miles. Its rear jets could shoot ice onto the road. Brushes near the wheels could also sweep away its car tracks.

You may have seen the Green Hornet and Kato make a cameo appearance on the Batman series during the famous wall-climb. Also, there was a second visit by the Green Hornet and Kato to Gotham City in a full episode on the Batman series where the dynamic duos battled against each other until they realized they were on the same side and then teamed to save the day. You didn't think Bruce Lee (a martial arts expert) as Kato was going to let little Burt Ward as Robin beat him up, did you?

There have been several rumors about efforts to bring The Green Hornet to the big screen for the current audiences, even rumors about something in development for the summer of 2009. I'll be looking for who's cast as Kato, reminded of the great Bruce Lee. It would have been fun to see Jet Li as Kato, as rumored in years past. However, we'll see if it's produced and the fans are stung by the Green Hornet and his enforcer, Kato. Until then, you can hear and download the familiar theme song, read episode guides, and enjoy a 10-minute short film, which you can see here:

As posted on YouTube by frenchmanofsteel

Image credits:
Tim's TV Showcase
Dial B for Blog - Batman and The Green Hornet

Reference:

Tim's TV Showcase - Green Hornet and Kato
Wikipedia

BAM! ZAP! POW! BOFF! SPLATT! ZLONK! ZOWIE! KAPOW!

Today I've gone batty and am celebrating the release of Batman on TV!

Batman was a TV series on ABC in 1966-1968 and was billed then as the most expensive production in the history of US television. It included stories of the Caped Crusaders (Batman, Robin, and Batgirl) battling evil in Gotham City. It was nominated for three Primetime Emmys. It appealed to kids and the adult audience as well. There were crazy plots, gadgets, and gimmicks. There was a Batcycle, Batboat, and Batcopter. The Batmobile had lots of nice features. It could perform a neat Bat Turn (with parachutes), create a Bat Smoke Screen, and could be operated remotely. It had many gadgets, like the Bat Ray (to disable vehicles), Bat Beam (to destroy anything in its path), an automatic fire extinguisher, battering ram, a mobile tracking scope to pinpoint the exact location of villains, an emergency tire inflator, a BatPhone, and even a mobile computer (The Mobile Batcomputer) to download information quickly from the Batcave. The show used color to full extent, had weird camera angles, and used odd titles. ABC did a marketing blitz for the show, bombarding the TV with ads and even purchased a skywriter to add the slogan "Batman Is Coming" above the Rose Bowl game. Initially it ran on two consecutive nights with a cliffhanger ending on the first.

Here's a video from YouTube of the Batman TV ads:

As posted on YouTube by mhirtes12
There are other videos on YouTube featuring Batman with the villains and Catwoman.

If you ever saw the show, you'd not likely forget it. Who can forget Adam West as Batman and the host of celebrity villains, like The Penguin (Burgess Meredith), The Joker (Cesar Romero), Catwoman (Julie Newmar), The Riddler (Frank Gorshin), The Bookworm (Roddy McDowall), Mr Freeze (George Sanders), to name a few. There were many other celebrity appearances in other roles, such as Kato (Bruce Lee), Ma Parker (Shelly Winters), The Siren (Joan Collins), Minerva (Zsa Zsa Gabor), Shame (Cliff Robertson), Chandell (Liberace), and Louie the Lilac (Milton Berle). Many stars had their first TV appearances on the Batman set, such as Teri Garr, James Brolin, and Rob Reiner. There were also a lot of guest cameo appearances, such as Paul Revere and the Raiders. Many celebrities often popped their head out the side of the building to question the caped crusaders scaling the side of a tall building in the famous Bat Climb, including Jerry Lewis, Dick Clark, The Green Hornet (Van Williams) and Kato (Bruce Lee), Sammy Davis Jr, Colonel Klink (Werner Klemperer), Lurch from The Addams Family (Ted Cassidy), and Art Linkletter.

Here are some links that you Batfans may enjoy:
Batman theme song

Batman words of wisdom

Batman heroic statements

Batman lecturing Robin

Original 1966 Batmobile Website


Many of my readers are too young to have enjoyed the Batman TV show. However, some may have heard about Adam West being sued and forced to stop wearing the Batman costume. And of course, you may also have heard of Julie Newmar's (CatWoman) long "catfight" and feud with her neighbor James Belushi that made the news.

Today, I hope that you will tune in tomorrow — same Bat-time, same Bat-channel! Thanks for visiting my blog!

Reference:
The Internet Movie Database
The 1966 Batman TV Trivia site

Image credit: The 1966 Batman TV Triva site